Snogwarts: These Dangerous Times
by SNOGWARTS
Summary: He had walked in on Minerva and Albus snogging. This was not a big deal. He and Sirius snogged all the time. Just because McGon – no, Minerva and Albus were older didn't mean they weren't allowed to snog anymore. Set roughly before OotP.


SNOGWARTS

These Are Dangerous Times

By GOLD fish 945

Assigned by Verbal Klepto

Pairing: Minerva McGonagall/Albus Dumbledore.

Disclaimer: This is the equivalent of VK's RLSB.

xxx

Remus sighed, highly annoyed. The rest of the Order would arrive in less than ten minutes' time and the kitchen was an absolute mess. Sirius, who was sullenly sitting on one of the hard chairs at the kitchen table, was glaring at his coffee and not helping Remus clean up in the slightest.

"You could give me a hand, you know," Remus shot at him. Sirius grumbled a response that Remus couldn't understand, and it took everything Remus had in him not to yell.

The war was finally beginning to take its toll on him, and he found himself more and more frequently reminding himself of Sirius' unique place, mentally. He was still recovering from Azkaban. _'He may never really recover,'_ Remus reminded himself, taking deep, calming breaths. He looked over at Sirius again, this time seeing the deep lines on his forehead, the bitter frown on his face, the hard stare he had fixed his coffee with.

"Do you need sugar?" asked Remus, his tone significantly less snappish. Sirius jumped a bit, coming back to himself now.

"No, thanks," he muttered. "When's the Order getting here?" Remus glanced at his watch.

"Seven minutes." Sirius' eyes widened in surprise.

"Jesus Christ," he said, springing up from his chair and spilling his coffee all over the table. "God _damn_ it!"

"Easy," said Remus smoothly, picking up a wet towel and wiping up the coffee. "Don't freak out. Just help me get everything ready, yeah?" Sirius nodded, trying to calm himself.

"What should I do?" Remus smiled. It always amused him that Sirius treated Remus like _he _was head of the house, no matter where they lived. Long ago, during the first war, James had said it was because Remus was the girl in their relationship. Remus could still hear Sirius' raucous laughter, through the years. Lily had always stood up for him though. He sighed. Maybe it was because he _was_ the girl.

"Could you please put away those dishes, and then check the drawing room for the plans I left there." Sirius nodded, and as he hurried to the sink to put away dishes, Remus heard the front door open and close quietly. Relieved that whoever had arrived had had the presence of mind to just _come in_, instead of inflicting Mrs. Black upon the whole house, Remus hurried into the bathroom to move Sirius' underwear upstairs. The man had the strangest habits, and leaving his underwear in the bathroom was only one of them.

Remus tossed Sirius' underwear onto their bed, too hurried to fold them and put them in their correct drawers. He shut the door of their bedroom quietly and tiptoed as quickly as he could down the steps towards the kitchen. As he passed the drawing room, he changed course. If Sirius wasn't yet finished putting away the dishes, there was no reason for Remus not to grab the maps and plans now while he passed the room, and he could let Sirius know he'd done it.

Remus crossed the entranceway of the house and grasped the handle of the drawing room door. It swung open, creaking loudly, but thankfully not loud enough to awaken Mrs. Black.

Remus' gasp, however, did just the trick.

"_Blood traitors! Scum! Shame of the wizarding world, how dare you befoul my home?"_

She screeched on and on, but Remus could not move. He was staring, open-mouthed at his previous Headmaster and Transfiguration Professor, who were staring just as awkwardly back at him.

"Remus, what the _fuck_, why aren't you shutting her up?" Mrs. Black's shouts of _"Mudbloods and filth, shame of my flesh!"_ were quickly silenced, and Sirius came over to the doorway, laughing a bit for the first time in Remus' recent memory. "For some reason, shutting her up always… puts me in.. a good… mood…"

Professor McGonagall was wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, glancing from Remus to Sirius to Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore, for his part, had regained his composure quickly and smiled at his former pupils.

"Good afternoon," he said, eyes twinkling and beard twitching to reveal a smile.

Remus' mouth was still wide open. He could not believe what he had just seen – his _teachers_ were… were… _snogging_! In Sirius' house! And they didn't even have the decency to move away from each other when they were caught!

"Good afternoon," said Sirius slowly. "Can I ask what happened to traumatize Remus so much? He looks like he's about to stroke." Dumbledore laughed an easy laugh, as though what Remus had just witnessed was nothing new.

"It appears Mr. Lupin was not aware of our relationship," said Dumbledore to Sirius and wrapping his arm around McGonagall's waist. Remus felt his eyes bulge. He had stopped breathing, he was certain. He was about to die from shock. Surely Sirius was just as appalled, just as horrified to find childhood teachers _snogging_ in his drawing room!

But Sirius just chuckled.

"I heard about something before Moony? What is the world coming to!" With that, Sirius pulled Remus' hand from the doorknob and eased him into the kitchen and onto a chair.

"Come on, Remus," said Sirius, rubbing his back soothingly. "It's McGonagall and Dumbledore. You can't really be surprised. Remember all those jokes we made about it during school?"

"But I was never _serious_ about it!" burst out Remus, breathing for the first time in at least three entire minutes. "It's – It's _McGonagall_ and _Dumbledore_!"

"Hey, we're free to call them Minerva and Albus now, remember? We've been getting in the habit. Honestly, it helps if you refer to them that way. It makes the whole… teacher snogging thing a little less disturbing." Remus took a few deep breaths, and Sirius quickly repaired the dish he'd broken at Mrs. Black's scream with Remus' wand. After a few seconds, Remus' breathing was normal again.

He had walked in on Minerva and Albus snogging. This was not a big deal. He and Sirius snogged all the time. Just because McGon – no, _Minerva_ and _Albus_ were older didn't mean they weren't allowed to snog anymore. When he was that old, he still wanted to be snogging. Minerva and Albus had every right to snog. He took one more deep breath, and felt much better. He was sure he could face his teachers during the meeting with blushing, laughing or vomiting.

"Oh, could you go grab those plans?" asked Sirius casually from the sink. "There are more dishes than I thought, and since you aren't doing anything…"

"Sure, sure," said Remus, standing up too quickly and knocking over his chair. Sirius snorted.

"You're as graceful as my cousin," he said. Remus rolled his eyes and righted his chair, then headed towards to drawing room for the plans.

Really, McGonagall and Dumbledore weren't such a bad pair, he mused. They were both good at Transfiguration. They were both fighting Voldemort. They both drank tea, and worked at Hogwarts, and were Gryffindors. They really had a lot in common, and for a moment, Remus felt foolish for not noticing it earlier. Certainly his professors had been seeing each other! The memories of many furtive glances between his professors looked completely different in light of this new information. He chuckled. It turned out that they were no better than he and Sirius when it came to falling for someone at the worst time possible.

He opened the door to the drawing room again. There they were again, his professors, lips tightly locked, McGonagall's hands twined in Dumbledore's silver hair. One of Dumbledore's hands, which had been at the small of her back, had begun to move lower, and Remus could not contain the shriek that bubbled up to his lips. His professors jolted apart again, and instead of looking properly abashed as they had last time, they simply looked a bit annoyed.

"Remus, _really_!" said McGonagall tersely, giving him a stare that he had learned at Hogwarts meant _five points from Gryffindor_.

"S-Sorry," said Remus, scurrying around the drawing room, keeping to the edges of the walls. "Needed to grab these. Bye." He snatched the papers from the desk in the corner and hurried for the exit, eager to get away, to burn the images out of his mind. Maybe acid would work.

"Remus," said Professor Dumbledore. Remus froze and turned. Thankfully, they were not snogging, but again, they hadn't moved from their close position. Dumbledore's arms were around McGonagall, holding her to him.

"Yes?"

"These are dangerous times, my boy," said Dumbledore. "This is the time to live in the present." Remus nodded and scurried from the room, slamming the door behind him, and reawakening Mrs. Black.

xxx

Minerva sighed, turning to look back at Albus.

"Well, I suppose that's everyone now," she said. Albus chuckled and nodded.

"I believe so. Except for the children, of course."

"We won't be putting on a show for them, I hope!"

"Certainly not, dearest," Albus assured her. "If they find out, it will purely be accident, not one of our pre-planned events!" Minerva sighed, exasperated.

"I don't understand you sometimes, Albus. You never have been one for theatrics, but suddenly you decide we need to _inform_ everyone with their _eyes_? Forgive me, but I don't quite understand you."

Albus laughed heartily. "True, I never _have_ been one for theatrics. But I must say, in these dangerous times, it _is_ nice to have a good laugh now and again. Can you say that these little episodes have not been entertaining? Can you say the look on dear Remus Lupin's face was not, excuse my bluntness, hilarious?"

Minerva's lips twitched as she fought a smile. True, Remus Lupin's reaction was by far the best – followed of course by Sirius Black's, which had been almost the same, only it had followed with hysterical laughter and Black insisting on shaking Albus' hand. Only Severus had taken it with any kind of grace – a roll of the eyes, a semi-sarcastic "congratulations," and a slip of Babbling Bubbles in their morning coffees as payback.

"I must say you do have a point there," Minerva conceded, unable to fight her smile anymore. "Though I must say I find the whole idea to be nonsense. It was amusing, but why couldn't we simply _tell_ people, if you wanted to, with words? Utter nonsense."

"A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men," said Albus, dipping Minerva unexpectedly. She squealed in a very girlish way, and blushed, surprised.

"I suppose," she said as he pulled her upright again. "In these dangerous times…"

"These dangerous times," agreed Albus in a very serious tone, his eyes twinkling mischievously. He dipped his face down to hers, gently placing his lips against hers, and jumping slightly as she pulled him closer and tighter.

Indeed, the times were dangerous, and Albus noted, as Minerva parted her lips against his, he was living in the present. He would have no regrets, no matter what happened. He tightened his hold on the woman before him and kissed her deeper.

_No regrets, in these dangerous times._

The door opened creakily again, and Albus was now becoming thoroughly irritated.

"Sorry to interrupt," drawled Severus, giving them both a mildly disgusted look, "but the Order has arrived and unless I'm very much mistaken, there's supposed to be a meeting this evening." He left, shutting the door behind him. Minerva sighed.

"Later," Albus assured her, taking her hand in his, walking into the kitchen to see Remus Lupin immediately avert his eyes, blushing scarlet.


End file.
